Priestly divisions
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Priesthood in Judaism |
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The priestly divisions or sacerdotal courses (
The 24 priestly divisions are first listed in the Biblical
Role in the Temple
The
According to the Talmud, the 24-family division was an expansion of a previous division, by Moses, into 8 (or 16) divisions.[5] According to Maimonides, the separation of priests into divisions was already commanded in the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:8).[6]
Lots were drawn to designate the order of Temple service for the different priestly orders.
According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta‘anith 4:2 / 20a): "Four wards came up out of exile: Yedaiah, Harim, Pašḥūr and Immer. The prophets among them had made a stipulation with them, namely, that even if Jehoiariv should come up out of exile, the officiating ward that serves in the Temple at that time should not be rejected on his account, but rather, he is to become secondary unto them."
According to
Following the Temple's destruction
Following the Temple's destruction at the end of the
List
Division[11] | Name | Mishnaic residence[12] | should start working | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First | Jehoiarib | Meron | 27/1/2024 | 13/7/2024 | 28/12/2024 | 14/6/2025 | 29/11/2025 | 16/5/2026 |
Second | Jedaiah | Tzippori | 3/2/2024 | 20/7/2024 | 4/1/2025 | 21/6/2025 | 6/12/2025 | 23/5/2026 |
Third | Harim |
Fassuta | 10/2/2024 | 27/7/2024 | 11/1/2025 | 28/6/2025 | 13/12/2025 | 30/5/2026 |
Fourth | Seorim | Ayta ash Shab or Ilut | 17/2/2024 | 3/8/2024 | 18/1/2025 | 5/7/2025 | 20/12/2025 | 6/6/2026 |
Fifth | Malchijah | Bethlehem of Galilee | 24/2/2024 | 10/8/2024 | 25/1/2025 | 12/7/2025 | 27/12/2025 | 13/6/2026 |
Sixth | Mijamin |
Yodfat | 2/3/2024 | 17/8/2024 | 1/2/2025 | 19/7/2025 | 3/1/2026 | 20/6/2026 |
Seventh | Hakkoz |
Eilabun | 9/3/2024 | 24/8/2024 | 8/2/2025 | 26/7/2025 | 10/1/2026 | 27/6/2026 |
Eighth | Abijah | Kfar Uziel | 16/3/2024 | 31/8/2024 | 15/2/2025 | 2/8/2025 | 17/1/2026 | 4/7/2026 |
Ninth | Jeshua |
Arbel | 23/3/2024 | 7/9/2024 | 22/2/2025 | 9/8/2025 | 24/1/2026 | 11/7/2026 |
Tenth | Shecaniah | Kabul | 30/3/2024 | 14/9/2024 | 1/3/2025 | 16/8/2025 | 31/1/2026 | 18/7/2026 |
Eleventh | Eliashib |
Kafr Kana
|
6/4/2024 | 21/9/2024 | 8/3/2025 | 23/8/2025 | 7/2/2026 | 25/7/2026 |
Twelfth | Jakim |
Safed | 13/4/2024 | 28/9/2024 | 15/3/2025 | 30/8/2025 | 14/2/2026 | 1/8/2026 |
Thirteenth | Huppah |
Beit Maon | 20/4/2024 | 5/10/2024 | 22/3/2025 | 6/9/2025 | 21/2/2026 | 8/8/2026 |
Fourteenth | Jeshebeab |
Shikhin | 27/4/2024 | 12/10/2024 | 29/3/2025 | 13/9/2025 | 28/2/2026 | 15/8/2026 |
Fifteenth | Bilgah |
Maghar | 4/5/2024 | 19/10/2024 | 5/4/2025 | 20/9/2025 | 7/3/2026 | 22/8/2026 |
Sixteenth | Immer |
Yavnit | 11/5/2024 | 26/10/2024 | 12/4/2025 | 27/9/2025 | 14/3/2026 | 29/8/2026 |
Seventeenth | Hezir |
Kfar Mimlah | 18/5/2024 | 2/11/2024 | 19/4/2025 | 4/10/2025 | 21/3/2026 | 5/9/2026 |
Eighteenth | Happizzez |
Nazareth (or Daburiyya) | 25/5/2024 | 9/11/2024 | 26/4/2025 | 11/10/2025 | 28/3/2026 | 12/9/2026 |
Nineteenth | Pethahiah |
Arraba | 1/6/2024 | 16/11/2024 | 3/5/2025 | 18/10/2025 | 4/4/2026 | 19/9/2026 |
Twentieth | Jehezkel |
Magdala | 8/6/2024 | 23/11/2024 | 10/5/2025 | 25/10/2025 | 11/4/2026 | 26/9/2026 |
Twenty-first | Jachin |
Deir Hanna (or Kafr 'Inan) | 15/6/2024 | 30/11/2024 | 17/5/2025 | 1/11/2025 | 18/4/2026 | 3/10/2026 |
Twenty-second | Gamul |
Kawkab al-Hawa | 22/6/2024 | 7/12/2024 | 24/5/2025 | 8/11/2025 | 25/4/2026 | 10/10/2026 |
Twenty-third | Delaiah |
Tzalmon
|
29/6/2024 | 14/12/2024 | 31/5/2025 | 15/11/2025 | 2/5/2026 | 17/10/2026 |
Twenty-fourth | Maaziah |
Hammat Tiberias | 6/7/2024 | 21/12/2024 | 7/6/2025 | 22/11/2025 | 9/5/2026 | 24/10/2026 |
Commemoration
After the destruction, there was a custom of publicly recalling every Sabbath in the synagogues the courses of the priests, a practice that reinforced the prestige of the priests' lineage.[13] Such mention evoked the hope of return to Jerusalem and reconstruction of the Temple.
A manuscript discovered in the Cairo Geniza, dated 1034 CE, records a customary formula recited weekly in the synagogues, during the Sabbath day: "Today is the holy Sabbath, the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; this day, which is the course? [Appropriate name] is the course. May the Merciful One return the course to its place soon, in our days. Amen."[14] After which, they would recount the number of years that have passed since the destruction of Jerusalem, and conclude with the words: "May the Merciful One build his house and sanctuary, and let them say Amen."
Archaeology
Several stone inscriptions have been discovered bearing partial lists of the priestly wards, their order and the name of the locality to which they had moved after the destruction of the Second Temple:
In 1920, a stone inscription was found in Ashkelon showing a partial list of the priestly wards. In 1962 three small fragments of one Hebrew stone inscription bearing the partial names of places associated with the priestly courses (the rest of which had been reconstructed) were found in Caesarea Maritima, dated to the third-fourth centuries.[17][18]
In 1961 a stone inscription referencing "The nineteenth course, Petaḥia" was found west of Kissufim.[19]
Yemenite inscription (DJE 23)
In 1970 a stone inscription was found on a partially buried column in a mosque, in the village of Bayt Ḥaḍir, Yemen, showing ten names of the priestly wards and their respective towns and villages. The Yemeni inscription is the longest roster of names of this sort to be discovered. Professor Yosef Tobi, describing this inscription (named DJE 23) writes:
As for the probable strong spiritual attachment held by the Jews of Ḥimyar for the Land of Israel, this is also attested to by an inscription bearing the names of the miśmarōṯ (priestly wards), which was initially discovered in September 1970 by W. Müller and then, independently, by P. Grjaznevitch within a mosque in Bayt al-Ḥāḍir, a village situated near Tan‘im, east of Ṣanʻā’. This inscription has been published by several European scholars, but the seminal study was carried out by E.E. Urbach (1973), one of the most important scholars of rabbinic literature in the previous generation.[20] The priestly wards were seen as one of the most distinctive elements in the collective memory of the Jewish people as a nation during the period of Roman and Byzantine rule in the Land of Israel following the destruction of the Second Temple, insofar as they came to symbolize Jewish worship within the Land.[21]
Though a complete list of sacerdotal names numbers at twenty-four, the surviving inscription is fragmentary and only eleven names remain. The place of residence of each listed individual in Galilee is also listed.[22]
The names legible on the Yemenite column read as follows:[20][23]
English Translation | Original Hebrew |
---|---|
[Se‘orim ‘Ayṯoh-lo], fourth ward | שְׂעוֹרִים עיתהלו משמר הרביעי |
[Malkiah, Beṯ]-Lehem, the fif[th] ward | מַלְכִּיָּה בית לחם משמר החמשי |
Miyamin, Yudfaṯ (Jotapata), the sixth ward | מִיָמִין יודפת משמר הששי |
[Haqo]ṣ, ‘Ailebu, the seventh ward | הַקּוֹץ עילבו משמר השביעי |
Aviah ‘Iddo, Kefar ‘Uzziel, the (eighth) ward | אֲבִיָּה עדו כפר עוזיאל משמר |
the eighth (ward). Yešūa‘, Nišdaf-arbel | השמיני יֵשׁוּעַ נשדפארבל |
the ninth ward | משמר התשיעי |
Šekhaniyahu, ‘Avurah Cabūl, the t[enth] ward | שְׁכַנְיָה עבורה כבול משמר העשירי |
Eliašīv, Cohen Qanah, the elev[enth] ward | אֶלְיָשִׁיב כהן קנה משמר אחד עשר |
Yaqīm Pašḥūr, Ṣefaṯ (Safed), the twelf[th] ward | יָקִים פַּשְׁחוּר צפת משמר שנים עשר |
[Ḥū]ppah, Beṯ-Ma‘on, the (thirteenth) ward | חוּפָּה בית מעון משמר שלשה |
the thirteenth (ward). Yešav’av, Ḥuṣpiṯ Šuḥīn | עשר יֶשֶׁבְאָב חוצפית שוחין |
the fourteenth wa[rd] | משמר ארבע עשר |
See also
References
- ^ 1 Chronicles 24:1
- Numbers 3, 1 Chronicles 24
- ^ 1 Chronicles 24:3
- ^ 1 Chronicles 24:4
- ^ Taanit 27a
- ^ Sefer Hamitzvot, positive commandment 36
- ^ 1 Chronicles 24:5; see commentators for the purpose of these lots
- ^ Sukkah 56b
- ISBN 978-0-567-36317-6.
- ^ See Qumran calendrical texts#Mishmarot, Luke 1:5-11; 23, and the end of the Sukkah (Talmud)
- ^ 1 Chronicles 24:7–19
- ^ ברייתא על משמרות הכהנים; some identifications are uncertain
- ISBN 978-9-004-20355-6
- ^ Bodleian Library, Oxford Ms. Heb. 2738/6, fol. 899 in Vardaman, E. Jerry and Garrett, J.L., The Teacher's Yoke, Waco TX 1964
- ^ Poem entitled, Lamentation for the 9th of Ab, composed in twenty-four stanzas, and the last line of each stanza contains the name of the village where each priestly family lived.
- ^ Samuel Klein, Barajta der vierundzwanzig Priester Abteilungen (Baraitta of the Twenty-Four Priestly Divisions), in: Beiträge zur Geographie und Geschichte Galiläas, Leipzig 1909
- JSTOR 27924896.
- JSTOR 23614642. (Hebrew)
- ISBN 978-3-11-033767-9, retrieved 2024-02-25
- ^ Tarbiẕ42, Jerusalem 1973, pp. 304 – 327 (Hebrew)
- ISSN 0308-8421.
- ^ Compare also the reconstruction as was published by Shalom Medina in the journal, "Afikim," 92, Tel-Aviv, 1988/9, pp. 28–30.
- ^ Rainer Degen, "An Inscription of the Twenty-Four Priestly Courses from the Yemen", Tarbiz, Jerusalem 1973, pp. 302–303